Alex de Minaur reaches Queen’s final after straight sets win over Holger Rune

Alex de Minaur has made another striking step towards Wimbledon by becoming the first Australian in 17 years to make the singles final at the esteemed Queen’s Club Championship.

The national men’s No.1 earned one of the best wins of his career to defeat a rising star of the sport, Holger Rune, 6-3 7-6 (7-2) with an immaculate semi-final display on Saturday.

Not since de Minaur’s idol Lleyton Hewitt won the last of his four titles in 2006 has an Australian man played in the final of the most prestigious pre-Wimbledon grass-court event.

But on Sunday, de Minaur will play either Carlos Alcaraz or Sebastian Korda in the showdown, as he seeks to extend Australia’s proud record at the 133-year-old Championships with a 27th victory.

‘I play pretty decent on the grass and I’m having an amazing week, and today I reckon was my best match so far, so happy days. We keep on going; one more to go,’ de Minaur told the crowd.

‘It’s a pretty special tournament, so let’s just hope I can do just one better tomorrow.’

He will do well to play a better match than his one hour 40 minute defeat of Rune on a baking afternoon in London, where the soaring temperatures required two separate second-set stoppages for spectators in the stands to receive medical assistance.

Typical of the gentleman de Minaur is, the 24-year-old took time out in his post-match, on-court speech to inquire after the pair’s well-being.

As to de Minaur’s own form, it was so hot that watching former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski said: ‘We always know Alex is going to give 110 per cent in every match, but this week he has been as good as I’ve ever seen him play in his career.’

Denmark’s world No.6 Rune is still finding his way on grass and looked much less comfortable than the Australian, who had been reflecting earlier this week that it’s his favourite surface ever since he first played on it at the age of nine.

The 20-year-old Rune delivered an error-ridden first game on serve to immediately let de Minaur cash in, and was effectively playing catch-up in vain for the rest of the match as the Australian, serving with a bit of extra heat and making just one unforced error in the opening set, never got broken.

A second break at the end of the opening set left de Minaur in control, and he created the best chances too in the second stanza when Rune, who was on the backfoot for most of the afternoon, had to save three break points to avoid going 5-3 down.

De Minaur’s own major moment of concern came when he had to rescue two break points of his own at 5-5, but he then dominated the tiebreak to set up the chance of earning the biggest triumph of his career on Sunday, topping even his triumph in Acapulco in another ATP 500 tournament in March.